Being a journalism major, as well as a young reporter, has always sparked mixed reactions from older adults. Even in a meeting with a loan counselor in the beginning of the semester; I was told that I wouldn’t make enough money in the field to pay off some of my loans.

Along with the misconception about money, I often get the “fake news” comment from various adults. While some of the assumptions about how much money journalists make can be true, it’s how quick people are to say “fake news” is what I have a problem with.

President Trump may have popularized the term “fake news,” but he certainly didn’t invent it, as some of his claims would lead us to believe. “Fake news” originates in the 1800s, when sensationalized news was becoming more prominent, but now we see our president use it when a publication writes something he simply doesn’t agree with.

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This trend has become contagious. In a recent poll conducted by Politico/Morning Consult, 46 percent of people who voted believe that big-name news organizations make up claims about Trump and his administration. Only 37 percent think that the news media do not fabricate stories, and the other 17 percent are undecided. Of the people who think that the news does report false stories, 76 percent of them are Republican. This outcome was followed by an unsurprisingly snarky tweet from President Trump.

There is more pressure than ever, especially on young journalists, to report factual and easy-to-read stories. This is why I chose the journalism field, and why many others joined this field — to live up to the challenge of influencing modern-day politics with credible articles.

A statistic from Data USA shows that in 2015, there were 20.01 million people working in the journalism field and that it grew 3.24 percent from 2014 to 2015. However, the data also show that there were 14,324 journalism degrees awarded in 2015, and that number is declining by 3.01 percent annually.

This is definitely a unique climate to report in, especially considering that Trump has made outright false claims on many accounts. PolitiFact has a running list of all of the untrue claims he has made, which is now eight pages long. These claims range from things he has said about the Obama administration to his own administration and even foreign affairs and national statistics.

Many of these claims point to the idea that he wants to brag and glorify himself, such as saying that no other administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days. This is ironic, considering he is so quick to peg something as “fake news” as soon as a news outlet says otherwise. There are still sensationalized tabloids and biased reporting out there; however, a knowledge of current events is extremely vital and not all organizations should be blamed.

Journalism is everything but a dying major. With the convergence of print journalism with web and the rising demand of social media, it is important now more than ever that there are ambitious writers who are passionate about setting the record straight.